I just figured I'd take a moment to commiserate with the other 9 people on this wiki who got rejected by Wesleyan.

I was so sure I would get an interview at one of the big New England SLACs, but I got rejected by all 4: Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan, and Wellesley (don't panic - Wellesley didn't make a short list yet as far as I know, I just found out via an email correspondence that they aren't looking for someone with my research interest). For the other three, I can't figure out if it's my research/teaching areas or if it's my qualifications or what. I wish we could get better feedback about that kind of thing (even just a generic form with certain things checked off: not enough pubs, insufficient teaching experience, inadequate teaching evals, research program doesn't fit at the institution, subject area not congruent with department teaching needs, etc.) so that I'd have any idea what to do better next time.

I don't really have a question or anything substantive to say. I am just sad. :(

Sorry to hear that anonymous :( I know I don't know your qualifications, but perhaps I can offer some general advice. I currently work at a big NE SLAC and I know the people they bring in usually have the following:

1. Teaching: Outstanding evaluations and experience. This includes teaching awards (even at the graduate level), raving teaching evaluations, and a couple of years teaching as a primary instructor (lab instructor/TA doesn't usually count). Moreover, past one-on-one mentoring of students is of high importance because these schools provide lots of one-on-one attention.
2. Research: A solid (not necessarily extraordinary) publication pipeline, though it is more important to demonstrate you are publishing/working with undergrads and plan to integrate undergraduate training into your future projects.
3. Service: These schools have a small community (students and faculty), so they want to know if you are a 'good citizen' and reach out to others in your academic community. Thus, they are looking for a promising service track record as well.

I think these are the things they weigh heavily when looking at your teaching/research statements, though no amount of "I will" verbiage regarding any of these components can make up for the lack of evidence on your CV (so make sure not to leave anything out; e.g. student projects you mentored, any awards they received under your supervision, etc.). And this is, of course, all on top of typical department politics of what research topics the SC finds "most sexy" at the time and how your teaching interests match up to their needs (which they are often vague about; maybe you've proposed to teach all the classes the SC chair teaches and wasn't happy about it).

So, chin up! We spend all of our careers trying to predict human behavior, and unfortunately the academic job search process is about as stochastic as it gets!

Thanks, anonymous2! I am pretty sure I have all three of those things solidly, if not in spades, so it has to be my area of interest. That's frustrating. As anon says below, I guess the price you pay for specialization is that it eliminates you from the running at a lot of places… but it also makes you a perfect match at a small handful, which puts you at the top of the pile (at least, I hope! so far, I have heard not a peep from anybody). I am trying to stay hopeful.

I was sad too - it seemed like a good place to work. I did hear that they were looking for specific things to be covered in their curriculum and that I simply didn't have those things. Maybe it was the same for you. Also, they had over 200 applications for the job. I'm not that sad anymore, though, because I realize I can't be everything to everyone. To be good at something requires that we choose a topic and specialize. This makes us attractive to some folks and, unfortunately, eliminates us from other places. By the way, if you wanted some feedback, you could always contact the search chair and ask. With over 200 applications, she might not have time to look through them all again to explain to every applicant, but, then again, maybe she will recognize your name because you made it to advanced stages of consideration and she would be able to just tell you from memory.